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Neville

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 21, 2006
3
0
Hi all with the latest Powerbook 15" 1.67GHz.
I've had mine for exactly a year.
I am making video documentaries with FCP. My huge frustartion is that I have to get my next film done and........

In the last couple of weeks my laptop started going into sleep mode despite preferences set as never sleep either with power or battery.

Sometimes it will wake up if I press the spacebar several times. Sometimes it will not wake and I have to take out the battery, press the start button for several seconds, replace the battery and have to go and set teh year etc yet again?

My local dealer told me to reset the power management module or whatever it's called. This is what I am forced to do every time it will not wake up from a sudden sleep anyway.

This happens sometimes after hours of use, sometimes wityhin a few minutes. Sometimes it finally wakes and goes off again a few seconds later!

There is no problem with my battery. This keeps happening on either power or battery...

It has been suggested that I may end up having to get a new motherboard (I forget the other name for this) which could cost $1,000!

A friend suggests that if the one year warrenty ran out on the very day I started having this problem then I have a right to demand that it be replaced for free. After spending so much money on this machine it is only reasonable to expect a reasonable time to expect it not to break down.

Any thoughts or feedback on this highly frustrating problem will be much appreciated.

Thanks
 

Cooknn

macrumors 68020
Aug 23, 2003
2,111
0
Fort Myers, FL
I found Resetting the PowerBook Power Manager on the Apple support site.

From the article: Over time, the settings in the Power Manager may become unusable, which can result in operational anomalies with the computer. Examples include not turning on, not waking from sleep, not charging the battery, or not seeing the AC Adapter, among others.

Good luck :eek:
 

elisha cuthbert

macrumors 6502a
Feb 25, 2006
665
0
Melbourne
Neville said:
Hi all with the latest Powerbook 15" 1.67GHz.
I've had mine for exactly a year.
I am making video documentaries with FCP. My huge frustartion is that I have to get my next film done and........

In the last couple of weeks my laptop started going into sleep mode despite preferences set as never sleep either with power or battery.

Sometimes it will wake up if I press the spacebar several times. Sometimes it will not wake and I have to take out the battery, press the start button for several seconds, replace the battery and have to go and set teh year etc yet again?

My local dealer told me to reset the power management module or whatever it's called. This is what I am forced to do every time it will not wake up from a sudden sleep anyway.

This happens sometimes after hours of use, sometimes wityhin a few minutes. Sometimes it finally wakes and goes off again a few seconds later!

There is no problem with my battery. This keeps happening on either power or battery...

It has been suggested that I may end up having to get a new motherboard (I forget the other name for this) which could cost $1,000!

A friend suggests that if the one year warrenty ran out on the very day I started having this problem then I have a right to demand that it be replaced for free. After spending so much money on this machine it is only reasonable to expect a reasonable time to expect it not to break down.

Any thoughts or feedback on this highly frustrating problem will be much appreciated.

Thanks

One of my friends had the same kinda problem and he actually had to get his power management module or something like that replaced, so i wouldnt be suprised if this will happen to you, but when you go and organise a repair just ask them to order the part and then when its in bring the pwrbk in and let them fit it so you get it back in hours not weeks.
 

matticus008

macrumors 68040
Jan 16, 2005
3,330
1
Bay Area, CA
It happens, especially with Final Cut. If the machine overheats regularly, it will go to sleep and not resume operation until properly cooled. I had the same problem on my PowerBook several months back, and I pulled my hair out for a week trying to get it to work...resetting everything, running all kinds of diagnostic software, reinstalling more than once, the whole nine yards. I was just about to break down and send it in when it stopped doing it and it's not done it since.

Reset the PMU a few times and go light on it for a few days. The thermal sensors might be acting up from prolonged overheating and need time to return to normal.
 

berg

macrumors member
Apr 12, 2006
55
0
Hi Neville ...

If it's not a hardware problem ...Hopefully one of these suggestions will be useful ...

1. Repair Disk and Permissions

These steps will check for, and usually repair, any corruption on your OS X boot volume

A/ Boot from your Mac OS X Install Disc 1 CD or DVD. Put disc in drive, wait for it to show up on the desktop, then go to upper left of screen under the Apple menu and choose restart. Immediately hold the "c" key down until you see the apple logo.

B/ When the Installer window opens, select Installer > Disk Utility from the Apple® menu bar.

C/ When the Disk Utility window opens, select "Macintosh HD" in the list on the left.

D/ Select the First Aid tab on the right

E/ Select the "Repair Disk" button on the lower right of the screen.
If errors are returned repeat this process 2 or 3 times until they are gone.

If you still get errors then you will need to use a third-party disk utility to repair your Mac OS X boot volume, such as Alsoft® Disk Warrior®

F/ After Repair Disk completes .. Click on "Repair Permissions" .. after permissions repair go to Disk Utility > Quit. Focus returns to Installer.

G/ Go to Installer > Quit. In the next menu choose Quit again and the computer will restart in OSX

3. Quit System Preferences if it is open and Trash these Prefs
Macintosh HD/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.PowerManagement.plist.
com.apple.autowake/plist (if available)

Empty trash ...

4. Use these trouble free energy saver settings ..
System Preferences/Energy Saver

"Put the computer to sleep when it is inactive for" .. at Never
Set display sleep slider where you wish... then ...
Check "Put the hard disk to sleep when possible".

Everything will sleep except the cpu ..

6. Go to startup items in Accounts and delete any scanner or printer button managers. This will disable these features unfortunately, on the units.

7. Reset Pram & NVram
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=2238

8. Reset PMU
http://search.info.apple.com/?search=Go&lr=lang_&kword=&q=pmu

Last resorts if the above don't work ...
9. Install Combo Update
http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/

10. Archive and Install
X-lab: Advice on Archive & Install
http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/archiveinstall.html

Good luck ...!
 

Cloudgazer

macrumors 6502
Apr 22, 2005
480
1
RSA
Yesterday my powerbook started going to sleep for no reason.
It kept doing it every couple of minutes.
I rebooted it (thinks back to Windows days) and it seemed to work.
But today it went to sleep for no reason, and i could not get it to wake again.
I had to take out the battery to reset it.

I have not been using Final Cut, and have only had minimal apps open.
The pbook has been very cool when this happened.

Any suggestions?
Please help!
 

Neville

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 21, 2006
3
0
Going to sleep

I am sorry for you but also glad to hear that someone else has been experiencing this mysterious thing of going to sleep unexpectedly when the machine has been set to not sleep!?

For me it was chronic. Happening in succession and refusing to wake up most of th etime.This is where I am up to briefly as possible:
Afetr getting sick of taking out the battery yet again I went to my local Mac shop. They advised me to do a hardware test. I booted with the Tiger update disk and my hardware passed. I then did repair disk test. Repairs were needed and repairs worked. I then repaired permissions (all through Disk Utility). This appeared to have solved the problem so I am basically happy. Yet my G4 Powerbook does go to sleep sometimes unexpectedly but it only happens now and then. And so far it has woken each time I pressed the spacebar. So I can live with it. So why it happens? I suspect some bug or software glitch. Really not sure...

I wonder if anyone else has experienced this??
 

Cloudgazer

macrumors 6502
Apr 22, 2005
480
1
RSA
I didn't even bother with the installation disk.

I just ran the disk utility app - twice.
It seems to have fixed the problem.
I dunno what it did - but it worked, and I'm happy.
 

Neville

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 21, 2006
3
0
Truly happy

Truly glad to hear you found a solution. I tried to repair the hard disk without the Tiger disk first but it failed.
 

Cloudgazer

macrumors 6502
Apr 22, 2005
480
1
RSA
Neville said:
Truly glad to hear you found a solution. I tried to repair the hard disk without the Tiger disk first but it failed.

I'm not running tiger :( still on 10.3.9
I'm glad the problem seems to have gone - but it was seriously stressful, especially when it didn't wake from sleep mode, and I had to take out the battery.
I think I must have aged 20 years in that half an hour!
 

MACDRIVE

macrumors 68000
Feb 17, 2006
1,695
3
Clovis, California
berg,

That is truely an awesome post. :) I know it must have taken some time to put it together. If nobody else on this thread thanks you, I most certainly do and appreciate your effort VERY much. :)
 

pulsewidth947

macrumors 65816
Jan 25, 2005
1,106
2
This has just started happening to me, while i'm doing something easy like browsing in firefox.

I hope the above advice works for me!
 

matticus008

macrumors 68040
Jan 16, 2005
3,330
1
Bay Area, CA
pulsewidth947 said:
This has just started happening to me, while i'm doing something easy like browsing in firefox.

I hope the above advice works for me!
It likely will not. Check your system logs for an overtemp "going to sleep" message and if it's present, download an application like Temperature Monitor and pay close attention to the Trackpad sensor.

If it is giving odd values like -24C, 68C, 124C, 1.2e-4578C, or basically anything that you know is inaccurate, you've found the culprit. That ultimately ended up being my problem, which no amount of zapping PRAM or reinstalling will fix, and Apple wasn't able to find the cause either. I thought it had been repaired, but it has resurfaced lately, and according to a number of sites I've found, there are at least a few dozen other 1.67GHz PowerBook owners with buggy trackpad sensors. They will not repair this out of warranty (the repair involves replacing the top case, not the logic board, which apparently does not contain the trackpad sensor) unless you're willing to pay the quoted $360.

If your warranty is ending, follow CanadaRAM's advice fast!
 

pulsewidth947

macrumors 65816
Jan 25, 2005
1,106
2
OK thanks for the advice. It hasnt happened for a while, but I've always checked the cpu temp after I've managed to wake it and its always been at about 42 degrees.

I'll give Apple a call next time it happens. I think my warranty is just about up, but I bought Apple Care so I should be OK.. i hope :)
 

mdotmay

macrumors newbie
Aug 19, 2006
2
0
I tried everything mentioned here - thanks for all your input everyone. But the problem kept happening (I'm on a 15" PowerBook 1.5Ghz).

I made an appt at a Genius Bar in an Apple store and they ran some diagnostics. They found that it was sleeping because the Mac thought it was overheating, but weren't able to overheat it in the store.

When I got home I found and downloaded a utility called Temperature Monitor:
http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/19994

It watches all your Mac's temperature sensors - the actual reading (or rather, what the Mac thinks its actual reading is) compared to the max allowable before the Mac sleeps itself, which it does to cool down.

Turns out I've got a bum trackpad sensor. Right now it's reading 0.0F, but it jumps suddenly to 213.5F. When it does that, it sleeps. And it stays asleep until it jumps back to a value lower than 118.4F, either accurate or inaccurate.

Any thoughts on whether there's an update that will fix it, or does my Mac need to go to the Spa in Cupertino for a week?
 

mdotmay

macrumors newbie
Aug 19, 2006
2
0
After my last post I kept hunting and found a new Apple S/W update for OS X that just came out 2 days ago (Aug 17, 2006). It didn't say anything about the issue I'm having, but I downloaded and installed it.

When I restarted, I launched Temperature Monitor to check status. My trackpad is still throwing off zany readings (0.0 degrees or 148 degrees), but the Specified Upper Limit for this sensor has been elevated to 230.0 from 118.4 degrees F. So even if my sensor is wack, it shouldn't sleep my computer.

Also, I took the battery out and am operating only on A/C currently, after reading this thread:
http://www.macfixitforums.com/printthread.php?Cat=&Board=Forum35&main=731197&type=thread

So I haven't isolated the solution, although I think I may have stumbled onto it somehow.
 

matticus008

macrumors 68040
Jan 16, 2005
3,330
1
Bay Area, CA
mdotmay said:
After my last post I kept hunting and found a new Apple S/W update for OS X that just came out 2 days ago (Aug 17, 2006). It didn't say anything about the issue I'm having, but I downloaded and installed it.
What update are you referring to?
 

alexhetheringto

macrumors newbie
Nov 6, 2006
4
0
this may help

I had this problem for months and tried everything described here. None of which worked. I called Apple who were useless. Beyond useless. I also looked at other sites with people mentioning the same problem. My sleep nightmare would usually occur using Safari or Word, and occassionally with After Effects and on capturing video into Premiere etc. It drove me crazy. My solution which has worked so far is: switch over to using a mouse and "turn off" the trackpad. In System Preferences it's the Ignore Trackpad if mouse present check box. The other thing I noticed in Console was it was generating some constant and repeated issue and error with AppleTalk. So I turned off Pesonal File Sharing. So far it's not jumped to sleep (which was sending me hurtling toward a total nevous breakdown). Anyway good luck, I KNOW how hellish this is.
 

alexhetheringto

macrumors newbie
Nov 6, 2006
4
0
powerbook update

Seriously though; am i naive or what. my suggestion is BS and the powerbook is now on life support at mac hospital with no word on its condition as yet. i feel the credit card i never use is about to be destroyed by enormous bill for new logic board, top case and bottle of scotch. i need APPLE to seriously consider their creative narrative since i feel the computer, its hardware and software are flawed.

intensive searches on the internet only lead me to believe that Apple are heading for a scandal, why will they not acknowledge this problem?

i demand both compensation for time lost and repairs for something outwith my control. this is a design flaw. simple. and for them to rewrite their misrepresentation of a digital support to my creativity. no other creative tool actually negates a creative process as much as a computer that falls into unconsciousness - if my powerbook were an employee - i'd fire its shiny little trendy modernist fraudulent, sleeping on the job ass.
 

matticus008

macrumors 68040
Jan 16, 2005
3,330
1
Bay Area, CA
i demand both compensation for time lost and repairs for something outwith my control. this is a design flaw. simple. and for them to rewrite their misrepresentation of a digital support to my creativity.
Welcome to the world. Apple isn't responsible for your lost time; you didn't slip on their driveway. The product's out of warranty and short of a recall, there's little hope of any compensation. If you rely on a computer for anything mission critical, you should always have a system under warranty or extended warranty. That's like not making backups. You have to assume that your computer will break sometime.

Make no mistake, I am also quite pissed that I needed to pay for such expensive replacement parts because of a 10-cent sensor, but that's the way it's supposed to work (questionable tactic of subdividing a computer into a dozen or so "individual" components aside). It'd sure be nice if companies fixed problems whenever they occurred, but the resulting costs that would be passed on would be absolutely immense on any product over about $100.
 

alexhetheringto

macrumors newbie
Nov 6, 2006
4
0
Welcome to the world. Apple isn't responsible for your lost time; you didn't slip on their driveway. The product's out of warranty and short of a recall, there's little hope of any compensation. If you rely on a computer for anything mission critical, you should always have a system under warranty or extended warranty. That's like not making backups. You have to assume that your computer will break sometime.

assume??

also you try and back up when the mac is falling asleep and cant wake up, and you have to remove the battery. and repeat. and repeat. assume? should i assume that i should buy more than one mac in case one breaks down? should i be very rich to work a Mac? I believe Apple is responsible for my lost time. This mac isn't broken - it's flawed, it is not fit for the purpose it was made to do, and that's a statutory right.

I dont have to assume that something will break if the guidelines to operate are adhered to. I may not have slipped on their driveway but if YOU PAY ATTENTION to this issue this is not my problem, i didn't make, design, manufacture etc etc. And LOOSE the welcome to the world attitude. What does that mean precisely. AND SORRY who are you to diagnose my computer, who are you? Steve Jobs. I make back ups, I'm surrounded by them, but see above. Take a very close look at what Apple are writing about their company on their web site: start reading from: THEY JUST WORK. And buddy while your there have a look at this http://www.macbookrandomshutdown.com/

Of course i don't expect compensation; I expect and deserve the truth about a product that negates my creative processes despite it claims of doing otherwise. I expect APPLE to take responsibility for a flaw. Thanks for your support, really helpful. Assume: perhaps less assumption on your behalf would have made for more appropriate response, I'm looking for answers not a lecture.
 

matticus008

macrumors 68040
Jan 16, 2005
3,330
1
Bay Area, CA
This mac isn't broken - it's flawed, it is not fit for the purpose it was made to do, and that's a statutory right.
Except that it's not. It hasn't been flawed since day one to a point where it needed repair--it has failed after warranty; it has broken.

I dont have to assume that something will break if the guidelines to operate are adhered to.
Yes, you do. You're operating a business, so you should be prepared for all eventualities. You can't rely on nothing going wrong as a business practice--it's unsound. Either pay for the extended warranty, or have a budget set aside for unexpected repairs. Do you not have fire insurance because you're assuming that if you do everything right, you won't burn down your house? It's Murphy's Law. You have to assume something will go wrong at some point, and you have to do your best to prepare for it.

Of course i don't expect compensation
Hmmm..."i demand both compensation for time lost and repairs for something outwith my control" must have been written in a secret, non-English language. Here's a tip: cut back on the caffeine and lose the self-righteous indignation. We're all upset about this problem, but launching a medieval Inquisition is simply uncalled for. It's a small enough problem that dealing with the customers individually makes more sense; if the system's out of warranty, then you're responsible for the cost of repairs. You can take it anywhere you want for those repairs, since you've got no warranty to lose.
 

alexhetheringto

macrumors newbie
Nov 6, 2006
4
0
since you have all the answers why not tell all the people on
http://www.macbookrandomshutdown.com/ what you told me about it not being flawed. i think it 1700 registered and counting. i don't regard this as a small enough problem...i am not running a business i am running a life. which is something i think you should get. you still haven't answered my question: how to do back ups on a mac that falls asleep? should i be psychic and rich to imagine all eventualities? and please don't tell me how i should feel about this situation. i don't need to be told how to conduct myself.
 

matticus008

macrumors 68040
Jan 16, 2005
3,330
1
Bay Area, CA
since you have all the answers why not tell all the people on
http://www.macbookrandomshutdown.com/ what you told me about it not being flawed. i think it 1700 registered and counting. i don't regard this as a small enough problem...i am not running a business i am running a life. which is something i think you should get. you still haven't answered my question: how to do back ups on a mac that falls asleep? should i be psychic and rich to imagine all eventualities? and please don't tell me how i should feel about this situation. i don't need to be told how to conduct myself.
You'll note that macbookrandomshutdown.com has nothing (as in zero) to do with PowerBooks, and that the specific issue causing these shutdowns is not the same as the MacBook issue, so telling those users anything would not follow, logically. As for backups, there's always target mode or removing the hard drive to copy elsewhere. I understand the frustration, having had this problem myself, but your responses have lacked perspective and rationality (to say nothing of consistency).
 
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